77 Quotes by George Gissing

"To be at other people's orders brings out all the bad in me."

"People have got that ancient prejudice so firmly rooted in their heads that one mustn't write save at I the dictation of the Holy Spirit. I tell you, writing is a business."

"I hate with a bitter hatred the names of lentils haricots - those pretentious cheats of the appetite, those tabulated humbugs, those certified aridites calling themselves human food!"

"A pipe for the hour of work; a cigarette for the hour of conception; a cigar for the hour of vacuity."

"To like Keats is a test of fitness for understanding poetry, just as to like Shakespeare is a test of general mental capacity."

"I know every book of mine by its smell, and I have but to put my nose between the pages to be reminded of all sorts of things."

"In nothing more is the English genius for domesticity more notably declared than in the institution of this festival-almost one may call it-of afternoon tea...the mere chink of cups and saucers tunes the mind to happy repose."

"I have the happiness of a passing moment, and what more can mortal ask?"

"Life, I fancy, would very often be insupportable, but for the luxury of self compassion."

"Literature nowadays is a trade... the successful man of letters is your skilful tradesman. He thinks first and foremost of the markets."